WA Regional Forest Agreement

The RFA has delivered a world class reserve system that exceeds national targets for the protection of biodiversity and old growth.

At the same time, it has put together a comprehensive $59 million industry development package that will help forest-based industries build on RFA certainty to explore new opportunities in value adding and local manufacturing, as well as boost tourism development in the region.

The RFA also improves forest management systems to ensure the sustainable forest management of the region's entire native forest estate.

The RFA delivers:

An additional 150,885 hectares to the formal reserve system, bringing the total area in conservation reserves throughout the South-West forest region to 1,047,200 hectares (an increase of 12 per cent).
12 new national parks and 25 additions to existing national parks.
Of the 347,000 hectares of old-growth in the South-West forest region, 232,800 hectares are now protected in formal reserves (an increase of 45,700 hectares).
This means that 67 per cent of all old-growth is protected in the CAR reserve system. This increases to 71 per cent if all road, river and stream reserves are included.
In ecosystems where old-growth is rare or depleted, 100 per cent has been reserved on public land where possible.
In line with the view that the timber industry needs to do more with less, governments have agreed under the RFA to reduce the annual contracted level of jarrah sawlog cut from around 482,000 cubic metres at present to 286,000 cubic metres from 2004. As agreed with industry, the average annual jarrah sawlog cut to 2003 will be 324,000 cubic metres.
The annual level of karri sawlog cut will reduce from around 203,000 cubic metres at present to 178,000 cubic metres from 2004. Average annual harvesting to 2003 will be 186,000 cubic metres.
The comprehensive $59-million industry development plan includes assistance for both the timber and tourism industries.
The $41.5-million timber package includes low cost loans to install value adding equipment and new technology, expand local manufacturing, and provide assistance with marketing, as well as money for redundancy packages and for business exit and contract buy-back support.
$17.5-million will boost the tourism industry with three new forest eco-lodges, camping and chalet sites, a scenic drive around Pemberton, tourism roads near Nannup, and recreation and tourism facilities at Wellington Dam.

The information on the following pages will bring you up to date on what's included in the RFA for Western Australia. The pages will open in a new browser window.